I came here to do two things: bake and chew bubble gum...and I'm all out of bubble gum.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Beer Cheese Cupcakes with Bacon Cheddar Cream Cheese Frosting

Wait....what?!?! Let's break this mess down: cupcakes with beer and cheese in them, topped with a cream cheese frosting that has bacon and more cheese in it. Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-diculous. Some guy friends were having a "we're men and we like to eat meat" party, so I thought I'd whip up a dessert that would finish off the evening on a manly note.

People often ask me if I make this stuff up, or if I find these recipes. It's a little bit of both. Usually, I think, "Hey, I want to make a dessert using _____, ______, and _____." So I do a few different Google searches to see what I come up with. Sometimes I'm successful in finding a recipe and other times I have to venture out on my own.

This time, I said to myself, I'd like to make a cupcake with beer and bacon. And BLA-DOW, this fabulous recipe was at my fingertips in mere seconds. I snagged the recipe from the Cupcake Project. Didn't make any changes really, but I'll still post it here for easy access (because I KNOW you are going run right to your kitchen to make these bad boys).

Beer Cheese Cupcakes

Ingredients

1c beer

1 stick, plus 1T unsalted butter

1c grated cheddar

2c dark brown sugar (yea, that's an entire box)

3/4c sour cream

2 eggs

1T vanilla extract

2c flour

2 1/2t baking soda

Directions

Combine the beer and the butter in a large sauce pan. Heat to melt butter. Add cheddar.

Remove from heat, and whisk in the sugar.

In a bowl, whisk the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla, then add to the beer mixture.

Sift together the flour and baking soda, and fold into the batter.

Pour into cupcake wrappers and bake for 25 minutes at 350.

Makes 18 to 20 cupcakes.

Bacon Cheddar Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

8oz cream cheese, room temp

1/4c butter, room temp

4c powdered sugar

3/4c grated cheddar

1c bacon crumbles

Directions

Beat together cream cheese and butter until creamy.

Add grated cheddar.

Slowly mix in powdered sugar.

Stir in bacon.

A few things of note: The original recipe suggests using a nice sharp block of cheese as opposed to pre-shredded cheese. I used a block, but eh, if you are pressed for time, use the pre-shredded stuff, but be sure to get extra sharp. The original recipe also said to use bacon bits. WHATEVER! If I'm adding bacon to something, I'm going to cook it up. So I crisped and crumbled it.

These were a bear (not the word I'd prefer to use) to frost because of all the mess of cheese and bacon in the frosting. But it was soooooooooo worth it. They were GUUUUUUUUUD. If you are looking for a man-tastic dessert for a sporty-good time, these are the way to go.

Planning on making these this week for my friends "everything must be in cupcake form" birthday party as an "appetizer" going to try making them using the Beer-Candied Bacon recipe I just came across this morning, which sounds perfect.

http://tideandthyme.com/beer-candied-bacon/

Planning on making the frosting ahead of time, I think it should be fine, maybe even be easier to frost the cupcake when it's cooled in the fridge for a day. And I'll be using the suggestion to add the bacon after rather than mixing into the frosting.